Light On Dark Water

“News Badges”?

This keeps showing up on the Google News page, and I keep wondering: why would anyone want to do this?

Welcome to Google News Badges

Collect private badges for your favorite topics. The more you read, the more your badges level up: you can reach Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and finally Ultimate. Keep your badges to yourself — or show them off to your friends!

For example, if you keep reading articles about Politics, it will earn you a Bronze badge…

So it counts the number of times you read a story on a certain topic, and at some point tells you that you've won a badge? Why? Who cares? I don't get it. Am I missing something?

The obvious response:


 

Maclin Horton

10 responses to ““News Badges”?”

  1. Craig

    It’s all part of this ‘social networking’ craze. The idea, I gather, is that one doesn’t do anything without somehow telling the world about it.
    Blogs can, of course, play into this, but technologies like Twitter, Facebook, etc. take it to another level.
    I don’t get it either.

    Reply
  2. Janet

    I have to wait until after 2 to eat my lunch, and then you make me choke on it!!! Laughing out loud with a mouth full of rice is inappropriate!
    AMDG

    Reply
  3. Mac

    (e)Mission accomplished.

    Reply
  4. Anne-Marie

    Also, nothing one does counts as real unless it has been marked somehow by a spectator, even a bot.
    This feels related somehow to an article I read years ago about computerized slot machines. It was a huge breakthrough when the makers realized that people would be gratified by non-monetary payoffs, such as the “privilege” of setting the background colour of the screen.

    Reply
  5. Mac

    That’s just sad.

    Reply
  6. Paul

    This is presumably meant for those primary school children who read the news on the internet?

    Reply
  7. Janet

    What gets me is people who use their cellphones to check in somehow on Facebook so that you know that they have been to Walmart 347 times. I don’t get it. If nothing else, I would think it could be dangerous, but even if it’s not, why do they do it????? Y’all probably don’t know because none of you do it
    AMDG

    Reply
  8. Mac

    Don’t forget Twitter. The very thought of Twitter makes me nervous. Facebook is bad enough.

    Reply
  9. Janet

    I’ve never even looked at Twitter. The name makes me too nervous.
    AMDG

    Reply
  10. Mac

    Exactly.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Instagram / TikTok / X

Designed with WordPress